Gov't To Review Tax System To Ensure Efficacy – Finance Minister

Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has announced that government is set to review the whole tax system to ensure efficiency.

This follows what the Ghana Revenue Authority believes to be the low tax compliance by citizens.

According to him, this will be done to create a more reliable system for the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to collect the necessary taxes for national development.

Addressing staff and stakeholders at a thanksgiving ceremony on Wednesday, 29th January, 2020, he commended the Authority for meeting its 2019 revenue target of 43 billion cedis, and called for more stringent measures to be put in place to achieve the 2020 target.

“Why don't we create a system which ensures that people will pay taxes easily. We can do it and you will see the amount of money we are just leaving and go out to seek for resources whiles we have them right here,” he said.

“So, we saw a glimpse of it in December, from a surplus of -1.8 to 2.8. As the Ghana Revenue Authority has been performing slowly, if we try, we will get there. So, for 2020, we are looking at whether we can review the whole tax system, but this is election year, so we are not going to do anything crazy but at least we are going to be very introspective so that we don't end the year in a deficit,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Board Chairman of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Professor Stephen Adei, has asked staff and stakeholders of the Authority to eschew corrupt practices in their line of work.

He urged the staff to view their position as a position of service and not as an avenue to loot and create wealth for themselves as their actions can negatively affect national development.

“We know we cannot police everybody but we at the board level will practice zero-tolerance for corruption so that when anyone is caught in the act, you will be indicted at once. When we investigate and you are right, you will have all your rights restored,” he said.

--citinewsroom